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Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Despite all the activity around them with Peel Plaza construction, the Saint John Arts Centre is alive and well.

Executive Director Andrew Kierstead tells CHSJ News the local arts community in the City and beyond will benefit from the addition of new Intaglio printing press which is used by artists for etching plates.

He says the plate would be etched in an acid bath and manipulated to create an image and ink is applied to the plate and the plate is put on the press, paper would be placed over the plate and it would be put through a roller.

Kierstead says the metal plate can be replaced with other materials like linoleum and wood. He says it's a major investment by Buckley Patterson Asset Management of Rothesay who paid $12,000 for the press and other renovations for the print studio were covered by the volunteer board of the Arts centre.

Kierstead says lots of people are exciting about this adding it's great news for the community.

Some rural areas will be getting new health centers and improvements to hospitals with the announcement of this year's capital budget for the department of health.

Stanley and Fredericton will get a new health clinics, and 1 million will go to designing a new hospital for Perth Andover. Bathurst, Moncton and other communities will balso get a boost to existing health services.

The 2013-14 capital budget will be $53.2 million and the department will be working with commmunities to allocate that money.

For the hard-to-buy-for nature lover on your list, the Nature Conservancy of Canada rolling out a new fundraiser that allows you to sponsor animal habitat in the name of someone you care about.

Paula Noel of the NCC tells CHSJ News you can symbolically purchase a snowy owl or a lynx.Gifts range from $40 to $400 for which the recipient gets a certificate for the recipient and a 2013 NCC calendar. The calendar featuresscenes of conserved lands from across the country.

In addition to an acre of habitat ($40), two of the species being highlighted nationally reside in various parts of New Brunswick.

=For more information on how you can help conserve NB's nature beauty, click here

President of the Saint John Board of Trade thinks the idea of a west to east coast oil pipeline is an exciting opportunity.

Imelda Gilman tells CHSJ news it's still in it's early phase and only time will tell what could happen. She says regulation will need to be put in place and businesses will need to jump on board.

Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver announced his strong support in creating a pipeline to ship Alberta oil to Saint John yesterday. Gilman believes it would take about a decade to come about but would bring a lot of economic spin offs such as increased business, more jobs, revenue and would bring people back to the province to work.

570 kids will have free, hot lunches for the next 2 years, after Potash Corp donated $25,000 to the Chicken Noodle Club. The Chicken Noodle Club provides hot lunches to needy young people and was in danger of shutting down a few weeks back.

Brian Earle has been treasurer for club for over 17 years, he says the donation was a wonderful surprise since they've never had close contacts with Potash Corp before.

Founder and Common Councillor Donnie Snook tells CHSJ news this year they saw a huge increase and demand for the club. He says the money will go directly towards the food and keep them going for another two years. Potash Corp GM Stuart Brown says when they heard the program was close to closing, they jumped on board to help. Brown laughed saying a lot of the kids were asking if they could cash the cheque themselves.

The Opposition Liberals have several questions for the Alward government about their Capital budget.

Of the $466 million dollar budget, $3.5 million is set aside to start new project done considerably from the previous year.

Liberal Finance Critic Hedard Albert says a lean budget was delivered but they have questions for the Ministers of Transportation, Health and Education on their budgets.

Albert points to a lack of funding for the twinning of Route 11 adding both Premier Alward and Minister Williams have said this is a priority for them yet, they have not been able to secure funding from their feds on this project.

He also singles out the commitment for funding to a Perth Andover community hospital saying the details on the project are scarce.Albert hopes to get answers to these questions when the Ministers in question deliver their budget speeches today.

The Chicken Noodle Club, which provides hot lunches to needy young people and was in danger of shutting down, has been given a financial boost thanks to a 25 thousand dollar donation from the Potash Corporation.

A ceremony will be held at noonhour today in St. John the Baptist-King Edward School in the south end.

Red Head might be designated a rural resource area but it's still our home That message was voiced loud and clear to the city's Planning Advisory Committee about a dual application by Debly and Thomas Construction to expand a quarry along Bayside Drive.

Deborah Kneeland of the Red Head Community Association tells CHSJ News they're worried about their wells, their property values and the noise from blasting. Another resident described how runoff from the existing quarry wiped out her driveway.

Consultant Rick Turner and representations from both Debly and Thomas say they live in Red Head too and wouldn't be pursuing the plan if they thought it would negatively impact quality of life in the neighborhood.

The rezoning application will go to public hearing before Common Council on January 7th but the PAC is asking the companies to reconsider the depth of excavation, limit work to between 7am and 8pm and complete a report on storm water management.